This penetrating study of the life and works of Constantino Brumidi by Dr. Murdock should arouse in public-spirited readers a desire to honor the fresco artist for his accomplishment, an understanding of which is of fundamental importance in a movement to further a strong national program of mural art of an inspiring type. It is appropriate that this history be addressed to laymen by one alert to the problems of the hour and sensitive to the need of general public awareness of the power of painting.
Thomas M. Beggs, Director
NATIONAL COLLECTION OF FINE ARTS
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
Constantino Brumidi, Italian Refugee
IT WAS late afternoon. The House of Representatives Chamber in the Capitol Building of the United States was deserted, save for one lone figure that stood motionless before the freshly painted mural on the south wall. Everything about this man in long black cape and close fitting beret betokened pride and triumph in achievement—the tense erectness of the body, the tilt of the head, the glow of the cheek and even the angle at which he held his pallet and brush. Suddenly, with strength and determination he said aloud, “I’ll do it,” then he rushed back to the picture, bent possessively over the lower right hand corner and began painting with quick, deft movements. When the lonely figure finally left the Chamber he seemed so satisfied with his work that he never once looked back.
Eighty years later as I stood before that mural on the south wall of our House of Representatives Chamber—that portrayal of a crisis in American history, representing Washington at Yorktown, I beheld for the first time the words in the lower right hand corner, left by that proud painter back in 1857, “C. Brumidi, artist. Citizen of the U. S.” Suddenly I asked myself, “Who is this C. Brumidi who has so much pride in his adopted country as to paint a portion of its Revolutionary history on the wall of the House of Representatives Chamber, and who glories so much in the citizenship of his adopted country that he emblazons that sentiment forever before the Congress of the United States?” I had no thought at that moment that those words inscribed on the wall of the Capitol Building of the United States by Constantino Brumidi could well be considered his epitaph, for he had no other, expressed in words. And of course I was unaware of the bitter criticism that followed his every effort. But I am ahead of my story.
So much did I want to see what this lover of America had done for his adopted country by way of decorating our Capitol Building, that I searched out every frescoed wall and ceiling, every painted panel, lunette, or medallion in committee rooms, corridors and Rotunda that were attributed to the Italian artist. As the number of those paintings mounted in my tabulations and as the beauty of his decorations sank into my consciousness, I decided he must have spent a lifetime in America for surely it would take a lifetime for such accomplishment. Then I learned that Brumidi came from Italy to America when he was almost fifty years old!
From meager biographical data the following additional facts came quickly to light: Brumidi was born in Italy in 1805, grew up in Rome, was admitted to the Academy of Arts in that city when only thirteen years old, and at the age of about thirty-five “restored some paintings in the Sacred Palaces to the full satisfaction of Pope Gregory XVIth.”
About all that is known of the artist’s next twenty years is that he became involved in “the French occupation of Rome in the year 1849 for the suppression of Republican institutions,” and when his friend, Pope Pius IX, was banished from Rome Brumidi was thrown into prison for fourteen months. As Captain of the Papal Guard Brumidi had refused to obey certain orders against his friends which resulted in the enmity of Cardinal Antonelli, Minister of State. Pope Pius IX was finally restored to the Vatican but he was unable to save Brumidi except on condition that the artist would flee the country and never return. Finally, to save his own life, Brumidi was forced to leave Italy. He reached America in 1852.